Patricia Ethell McDonald was an Australian radio actor and actor of stage and television and the daughter of one of Australia's most prominent electric radio engineers and public servants, Arthur Stephen McDonald and his wife, milliner Edith Roseina Ethell. Her grandfather, bootmaker John McDonald, was born in Victoria, and married Eliza Mary Stevenson. Although she was not the first female Gold Logie winner in Australia, which was entertainer and TV host Lorrae Desmond, she was the first female character actor to win for serial Number 96.
Pat McDonald pictured right with Bunney Brooke, in Number 96
Number 96 is an Australian primetime soap opera that aired on 0-10 Network from 13 March 1972 to 11 August 1977, originally broadcast in the primetime slot of 8:30 pm for half-hour episodes every weeknight, later 2 1-hour episodes screened per week.
Title card from a 1975 episode of Number 96 while airing on TV1
Early black-and-white episode featuring semiregular Thelma Scott as Claire Houghton and her on-screen daughter Bev Houghton, played by Abigail
Left to right: Bunney Brooke, Dina Mann, Sheila Kennelly, Frances Hargreaves, and Pat McDonald, who was immensely popular as malapropping gossip Dorrie Evans
Gordon McDougall as Les Whittaker